English Explanatory Dictionary

nothing to see here

English dictionary entry

Meanings

phrase
  1. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see nothing, to, see, here.
  2. The event or situation is unremarkable or unimportant, and people should not pay undue attention to it.
  3. A phrase used to dismiss or downplay an event, frequently implying that there is, in fact, something significant being hidden or covered up.

Pronunciation

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-nothing to see here.wav

Word forms

nothing to see here

Etymology

Derived from the police directive "Nothing to see here, move along," historically used to clear bystanders from crime or accident scenes. The phrase gained widespread recognition after its comedic use in The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988), where Frank Drebin (played by Leslie Nielsen) tries to defuse a chaotic scene by stating, "Move along! Nothing to see here!"

Synonyms

move along pay no attention to that man behind the curtain elephant in the room
This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.
Back to search All on N Russian dictionary Dahl dictionary